Changes to config.h in dwm are not applying

Help
19

UPDATE: I figured it out

I used lxqt for a bit but i really liked the functionality that was built into dwm, so i switched back and ive just been sitting down with chatgpt on and off trying different things to get this working and we finally figured it out,

And since now i know what needs to be done

Here is a full tutorial on how to install dwm on nixos

Get the repo

  • Get the github repo of dwm, by either manually downloading the zip from the website or by pulling it with git
    • If you did the manual download then,
      • Unzip the folder in the nixos folder where you have your configuration.nix
    • If you pulled it through git then,
      • Move the folder into the nixos folder where you have your configuration.nix
    • If the folder ends up having a different name than dwm then rename it as such
    • If you want to change the name to something else entirely then DONOT FORGET to update the name in your configuration.nix as well

Update configuration.nix

  • Go into your config
  • In there it will be formatted like this,
    { config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
    {
        imports = 
            # the
            # rest
            # of
            # your
            # config

    } # the end of your config
  • In there, add the following, anywhere in your configuration.nix
    { config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
    {
        imports = 
            # some stuff
            # more things

            nixpkgs.overlays = [
                (final: prev: {
                    dwm = prev.dwm.overrideAttrs (old: {
                        src = ./dwm; # this is where you tell nixos to get all of your dwm settings from
                    });
                })
            ];
            # you can put something else here

            services.xserver.enable = true;
            services.xserver.windowManager.dwm.enable = true;
            # you can put something else here

    } # the end of your config
  • NOTE: I have no idea what nixpkgs.overlays does, i just copied it from chatgpt

Update DWM config

  • After this is done, go into the dwm folder and then make a copy of the config.def.h file to something like original.h (just in case you break everything and need to go back)
  • Now you can update the config.def.h file to suit your needs
  • When that is done, just save the file and do sudo nixos-rebuild switch and reboot the system or you could just logout and login
  • Your changes should appear as expected, hopefully
1 Like